UN Close To Indicting Hezbollah For Hariri Assassination--But Then What?

The Wall Street Journal is reporting the UN is close to indicting Hezbollah for Hariri's murder:

The United Nations-backed court investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is moving to indict between two and six members of the militant group Hezbollah by year-end, according to people briefed on the tribunal's work, stoking fears of renewed sectarian strife in the Middle East country.

The U.S. has scrambled to bolster support for the tribunal and the pro-Western government of Lebanon in the face of threats of violence from Hezbollah if the indictments are handed down.

Among those being investigated is Mustafa Badreddine, a senior Hezbollah military commander. Badreddine is also the brother-in-law of Imad Mugniyah, who--before his death 3 years ago in a 2008 car bombing in Damascus--was on the FBI's most-wanted list for having overseen a number of terrorist attacks against American interests in the 1980s: including the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut that killed 241 servicemen.

The main concern is what will happen after the indictments have come out--and Hezbollah has done nothing to assuage those concerns:

In recent days, people who identified themselves as Hezbollah supporters in Beirut have attacked and injured U.N. staff working on the investigation into Rafik Hariri's death. Mr. Nasrallah and other Hezbollah leaders have publicly warned Saad Hariri's government against providing any further assistance to the tribunal, and have suggested violence if indictments are handed down.

"Such an indictment is a warning bell equivalent to lighting the fuse, to igniting the wick for an explosion, and is dangerous for Lebanon," Hezbollah's No. 2 official, Naim Qassem, told the BBC Arabic service on Tuesday.

Hezbollah isn't likely to give up any of its members to the tribunal, and Lebanon's armed forces are significantly weaker than Hezbollah's militia. In 2008, Hezbollah militiamen briefly seized swaths of territory in Beirut, following a standoff over security issues with Mr. Hariri's pro-Western faction during Lebanon's previous government.

Read the whole thing.

The fear is that Hezbollah will take advantage of the indictment to find an excuse to do the same again.

Technorati Tag: Hezbollah and Hariri.